Safety First
by Terry Brinkman

 

Yesterday I went to a viewing of one of my work friends who passed-away. Rod was two years younger than I am. There were around ten or twelve other work friends I know well; some who I have seen since my retirement and some who I have not seen for eight years. Mike, who’s been retired a couple years, mentioned that when we were younger we were going to each other’s Weddings, now we go to each passing on.  Talking to Rod’s family about our memories of him; our memories of those of us left and still kicking came up. One story was about Dan, one of my former bosses.

A few years ago back when I worked, one of my jobs with the gas company was to go on Fire Calls to assist the Fire Department if needed. Also to check for Gas Leaks and shut and lock the gas off.

It was almost midnight when I got this Fire Call. As happens all too often the Fire Trucks were blocking access to the house, so I needed to park way-back. No big deal. I grabbed my wrench and lock to turn off the gas, the key is always in my pocket, and a Gas Detector, a Probe and a Bar to punch a hole in the ground to check for gas.

I hiked to the Fire Chief’s Location admiring the Full Blue Moon on the way. I check with the Fire Chief she says “hang loose for a few then you can go do your thing”. A few minutes pass fast, and she waves me over, “go do your thing”.

I go over looking for the Gas Meter, to shut off and seal. I looked at the map before getting here so I can see the Gas Meter is under piles of burnt trash the fire guys knocked down to stop the fire. Then I notice I forgot my gloves and I didn’t want to walk back down to my truck. Oh well I will just dig through the trash carefully, it’s always Safety First.

The first thing I move I almost cut my thumb off. Wrapping it with a paper towel from my pocket I stop most of the bleeding, I complete digging, shut off the Gas Meter and lock it off. I probe over the gas line, I find no leak. I go let the Fire Chief know I am done and ask if she needed anything more.

She happened to see my bloody rag over my thumb; she said “you can’t leave like that. Go have one of the medics patch it up”. Then she shows me where to go get my thumb patched. Then I hear “no injuries but for the Gas Man”. It was one of my bosses - Dan; so he walks over with me to get repaired. The Paramedic who patched me up said “the cut was down to the bone but it is going with the skin grain so I should not need stiches”. He cleans up my thumb and puts on a gauze and tape. I and Dan head down to our trucks – he had parked near me. “I will see you in the office” he said as he departed.

Back in the office I park my truck, put everything away and complete my paper work and head into the office. As soon as I enter the building I hear someone call “come here I want to look at your hand”. It was Dan the boss - or should I say bossy Dan – “yea they patched it fine for a few days” I said. He inspected  it “ I can do better” see, bossy. “Meet me in the wash room I will grab a First-Aid Kit”. I go there and seconds behind me he shows up, he pulls the repair the paramedic made off. Blood was squirting everywhere. I wash it off and Dan opens up the First-Aid Kit, no surprise it was empty. “I will go upstairs and get a different First-Aid Kit  - all the time saying “maybe I should run you to the hospital”; Shows up with a new kit, ah it was full; after a few tries he gets a  Band-Aid on “well that should do it, let’s go home. Should we clean up all the blood? He said “what blood this never happened”;. “Good-Night”, good-night”.

Oh, when I got home I needed to put a good Bandage on, being as it was still slightly bleeding. 

 

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